Tara Carpenter

“	I still prefer The Babadook.	”
–Tara after killing Amber Freeman.

Tara Carpenter is the deuteragonist of the Radio Silence Scream duology: Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023). While home alone, the "elevated horror" fan becomes the first target of the 2022 Woodsboro Legacy Murders. Despite this, she survives, an inverse to the tradition of the previous four film openings.

Her survival is intentional, however. She is lured as live bait for her estranged, elder sister Samantha Carpenter. Sam returns and reveals she is actually her half-sister (maternally), as Sam is the daughter of the original Ghostface, Billy Loomis (making her the killer’s step-daughter). The revelation caused Tara's biological father, Mr. Carpenter, to abandon them both (when Tara was around 8). The estranged sisters put the past behind them to survive the 26th anniversary killings, where Tara's Woodsboro High friendship group are suspects.

Tara's life is also saved by original legacy survivor, Dewey Riley, who sacrifices his life to save her. Her asthma condition and required inhaler become a key element to the film's climax. Her best friend, Amber Freeman, and Sam's boyfriend, Richie Kirsch, both a secret romantic couple, worked together to plan the honorary requel murders. Tara kills Amber in revenge.

Based on the date of birth shown on her hospital wristband, her age in the fifth film is 18 turning 19. She most likely repeated one grade of high school, and her sister Sam, who allegedly abandoned her on her 18th birthday, actually left Woodsboro closer to 19 than 18. Although a production error, both remain a possibility.

However, in Scream VI, there is a glaring and major Continuity Error in which the age discrepancy for Tara (and her sister) changes, due to the fact that in the fifth film, which is supposedly the 25th anniversary of the first Woodsboro Murders is misaligned, due the sixth film retconning and stating the Third Woodsboro Murders occurred in September 2022 instead of in 2021. This thus places Tara’s age for the Timeline as 19 turning 20, while still in high school, with her and her friends being the Woodsboro High class of 2023 instead, which can, for various reasons, still be canonical.

One year after the 2022 Murders, Tara moves to New York City for college, where she is followed by Sam shortly after. Tara has since cut off her mother, Christina after she cut off Sam, and Sam is now overprotective of Tara, much to her dismay. Tara wants nothing more than to just go back to a normal life; however, a new Ghostface killer soon begins targeting them, wearing the chilling Ghostface costume. They are eventually unmasked to be Richie's father, Wayne Bailey, and siblings, Quinn Bailey and Ethan Landry, who all want revenge against Sam for killing Richie.

She was portrayed by Jenna Ortega.

Biography

Early Life

Tara was born to Mr. Carpenter and Christina Carpenter on December 14, 2002 and grew up adoring her older sister, Sam, who is 5 years older than her.

In mid-late December 2010, Sam was 13 and discovered that their legal father was not her biological father, making Sam and Tara maternal half-siblings.

As a result of exposing this information, Tara's father left the family that night. Sam then eventually went down a downward spiral for the next approximate 5 year period (almost 6 years most likely), eventually abandoning her family.

She allegedly left on her 18th birthday according to Amber Freeman at the bar, but it is likely to be when she was almost (or turned) 20, sometime in 2017, as the fifth film occurs in late-2022, instead of late-2021, due to the sixth film's retcon (See: Continuity Errors), five years after she left.

Amber, who is later revealed to be the eighth Ghostface killer, said she left as soon as she turned 18 to exaggerate Sam's flawed qualities to arise suspicion in her from her friends. (See: Timeline)

The Woodsboro Legacy Murders (2022)

“	Well, it’s elevated horror. (…) You know it’s like scary but with complex, emotional, and thematic underpinnings. It’s not just some schlocky, cheeseball nonsense with wall to wall jumpscares.	”
–Tara in her first ever call with Ghostface and having higher taste in horror., Scream (2022)

Almost 26 years after the original Woodsboro Massacre and 11 years after the Second Woodsboro Murders, Tara is a young, 19-year-old teenager. She is under 3 months shy of her 20th birthday. On Thursday, September 23^rd, she was left alone at the Carpenter Residence while her mother was at a conference in London. Tara is shown texting on her phone with her best friend Amber Freeman, convincing her to come over by stating that the liquor cabinet is unlocked.

She gets a call on the landline from a man at 9:27 pm. The man identifies himself as "Charlie" (possible Easter egg reference to the Stab 8 Flamethrower Ghostface, an adaptation of the sixth revealed Ghostface killer, Charlie Walker), a friend of her mother's from "group". She finds the wording of "group" curious, and ponders to know whether it is drug (NA or Narcotics Anonymous) or alcoholism-affiliated (AA or Alcoholics Anonymous).

Tara casually speaks with the man, who has a calm, friendly, and husky voice. He reveals that her mother said she likes horror movies, claiming that her mother's favorite is the 1997 film Stab, which is based on the original 1996 massacre. He then proceeds to ask Tara the traditional question of what her favorite scary movie is (in a subtle way by alleging her mother asked them). Tara answers honestly about her genre being elevated horror, which the man disregards this as boring. He proceeds to ask if she's ever seen Stab, which she confirms as having seen once at a sleepover, and wonders how she lives in Woodsboro and doesn't know it despite it being allegedly her mother's favorite.

Eventually, the man asks Tara about remembering the beginning of the movie, as Tara answers with how they all started with a kill scene (meta reference to the franchise and the Stab movies). Charlie then switches to the traditional voice and narrates the tradition of the girl at home alone, answering the wrong phone number, and talking with a killer who makes her play a game. He then asks Tara by name if she wants to play a game, despite her never saying her name. She hangs up and fearfully looks around while closing her curtains and the doors to her house via her security system phone app. As she's about to text Amber, the landline rings again before Amber states she should answer it, much to Tara's confusion and fear. When Tara questions her about this, Ghostface replies that this isn't Amber and to answer the phone, albeit in a more aggressive manner.

Tara reluctantly agrees to play their game and to not call the police after they send her a video of her best friend, Amber Freeman, with the killer outside and their knife in hand. They sadistically claim she shouldn't have left her phone laying around for anyone to clone, thus how they're contacting her. Tara plays along and she is forced to answer three trivia questions (four, including the warm-up one) about the first Stab movie. She loses the final question when she forgets to mention that Stu Macher was also a killer in the original. When Tara heads outside with a kitchen knife to protect Amber, she encounters Ghostface at the door and is slashed in the stomach.

Tara punches the killer instinctively and proceeds to push on the front door as Ghostface tries to get in before Tara manages to succeed in briefly keeping the killer out and locking her door. While Tara inspects her wound, she locks her house doors again and alerts the police via her phone app. Tara warns them that the police are on their way before Ghostface stops pounding on the door.

Then, Tara is psychologically taunted as the killer unlocks the doors 4 times, ultimately stopping before she's startled by the landline ringing. When Tara answers, Ghostface menacingly asks her if she thought the killer made it inside her house before she could re-arm, before appearing behind her and stabbing her again in the stomach.

Although Tara tries to flee, Ghostface breaks her leg and then stabs her seven times before being interrupted by the police. Tara is taken to Woodsboro Community Hospital, and the next day Samantha returns to Woodsboro when she is called by Tara's friend, Wes Hicks. Sam visits Tara in the hospital and the two make amends. However, this is short-lived, as Samantha gets a call from Ghostface, taunting her over the knowledge that "he" knows her little secret. Sam then reveals to her younger sister she is the daughter of Billy Loomis, and this causes a rift between the two again.

Tara is moved to a private hospital floor and room after Sam's attack, initiated by Sheriff Judy Hicks. However, she is left unattended by the deputies due to Sheriff Hicks requesting all units to converge on her house. After Tara hears a thud, she painfully gets into a wheelchair to get out of her room. When she investigates the sound, she discovers the body of Deputy Clay, who was slowly dying after getting his neck slashed by Ghostface. When the cloaked killer breaks into the hospital to finish her off. Tara attempts to flee and is temporarily "saved" by Richie Kirsch, Samantha's boyfriend.

However, Ghostface knocks him "unconscious" and then uses Tara's phone to call Samantha and force her to choose between Richie or Tara. Samantha and Dewey Riley arrive at the hospital and shoot at the masked killer. As Sam, Richie, and Tara leave, Dewey stays behind to finish off the killer; however, he is killed in the process. As a result, Sam decides it's time to leave Woodsboro and they drive off.

As they leave, Richie secretly steals Tara's inhaler. Having lost her inhaler, she asks them to stop at Amber's to get a spare one, unaware that Amber's house is 261 Turner Lane, the house formerly belonging to Stu Macher. Amber and Tara go off to get the inhaler. When Mindy Meeks-Martin is attacked, a fight breaks out amongst the group. Liv McKenzie, tired of being accused, yells that she is not the killer, and Amber says, "I know" before whipping out a gun to shoot her in the head. As everyone stands in horror, they disperse from her. However, Tara stays behind to fight a losing battle against her former friend.

Off-screen, Amber ties Tara up, tapes her mouth shut, and traps her in a closet.

Richie, now revealing himself as the second killer, attempts to make Sam doubt Tara. Unbeknownst to them, Samantha untied her, and she threatens Richie and Amber. Tara attacks Amber with her crutches and cries while doing so. Unfortunately, Amber gains the upper hand, kicking Tara after recovering to her feet and throwing her into the walls. Finally, she throws her over the couch, seemingly knocking her unconscious.

Gale Weathers and Sidney Prescott, who have tracked Tara's sister down to 261 Turner Lane, are injured and cornered by Amber amidst this. After Sidney and Gale co-team to set Tara's former friend on fire with a burning stove in the kitchen, they rejoin Samantha in the living room area. After Richie is stabbed multiple times to death in defense by her sister, Gale, Sidney and Samantha take a look at the bloodshed around them.

Amber, however, is half-burnt to a crisp and rises, screaming with a knife as she launches an attack on the three individuals. Amber charges towards them only to be expertly shot directly in the head by Tara, whom regained consciousness after Amber's attack. As reporters dish on the murders, Tara is loaded into the back of an ambulance for her injuries, and she leaves with Samantha. (In a humorous-to-the-audience way, she asks to go to a different hospital.)

Aftermath

After recovering and graduating from Woodsboro High in 2023, as well as turning 20, Tara enrolls at Blackmore University and moves to New York City with Mindy and Chad, who are also attending. Sam follows Tara and the sisters rent an apartment and find a roommate in Quinn Bailey, a fellow Blackmore student. Subsequently, Tara cuts off her mother after she cuts off Sam for revealing the truth about Billy Loomis to Tara.

The New York City Murders (2023)

“	We want to lure him to a secure location and trap him inside. (…) We execute him.	”
–Tara turning the tables on the killer, Scream VI

During the first day of Halloween Week in 2023, on the night of Saturday, October 29^th, Tara attends a Halloween frat party. Along the way, she briefly crosses paths with her classmate, Jason Carvey, who had just murdered their professor, Laura Crane, before meeting with Chad, Mindy, Mindy's girlfriend, Anika Kayoko, and Chad's roommate and friend, Ethan Landry. Tara meets a student, known as Frankie, who is a rapist fraternity boy, unbeknownst to her (although when she’s confronted by Sam, states she knew he was an asshole), who invites her into his room to do fireball shots. Chad, who knows this person is bad news, intervenes and gets into a physical altercation. This ends when Sam arrives at the party and tases the student in the testicles.

On the way back to their apartment, Tara argues with Sam about Sam helicoptering over her and asks her to leave her alone and give her space. When they get back to their apartment, Quinn apologizes to Tara for telling Sam about where she was and Chad comforts Tara and confesses his feelings to her. When they lean in to kiss, Quinn barges into the room looking for her phone, interrupting them.

A news report relays the news of Jason and Greg Bruckner's murders and Quinn calls her dad, NYPD Detective Wayne Bailey, who informs Sam that her driver's license was found at the murder scene and that he needs her to come down to the station. As Sam leaves, Tara follows her and Sam instructs her to go back, but Tara refuses and continues with her. Along the way, Sam gets a call from Richie's old phone number and when she answers, the sisters are taunted by Ghostface who then emerges from an alley.

The sisters evade him and run into a bodega, but Ghostface follows them in and murders multiple customers and then the clerk who tried shooting him. Ghostface takes control of the clerk's shotgun and tries to kill the sisters, but the police arrive before he can. They are then interviewed by Wayne at the police station where it is revealed that a mask found at Jason's murder scene tested positive with DNA matching Richie. The interview is interrupted by the arrival of FBI Agent, and former Woodsboro survivor, Kirby Reed. Wayne then confirms that a mask left behind at the bodega contained DNA matching Jill Roberts and Charlie Walker, the killers in the 2011 Woodsboro Murders.

Tara and Sam plan to leave the city, but Wayne tells them that isn't possible as they are suspects in a murder investigation. When the sisters leave the police station, they are ambushed by reporters, including Gale who has since written a book about the ordeal despite the fact that she said she wouldn't. While she tries getting a word, the sisters try to clock her, with Tara succeeding. After their argument, she informs them that Sidney will be staying away from New York which the sisters best agree on before leaving in a taxi. They meet up with Mindy and the rest of the group and Mindy discusses the rules of a "sequel to the requel".

The group agree to stay together for the night and Chad nicknames the survivors the "core four". Tara makes amends with Sam and Sam then reveals that she is dating Danny Brackett, their neighbor. Ghostface soon attacks the group in the apartment, murdering Quinn and Anika in the process, and Tara and Chad are able to flee downstairs whilst the others are forced to climb over a ladder between their apartment and Danny's. The next morning, Gale makes amends with the group and takes them, along with Wayne and Kirby, to an old theatre owned by Jason and Greg which has been turned into a Ghostface shrine.

Tara bonds with Kirby about trying to lead a normal life after being a survivor of a Ghostface killing spree. Later, Wayne devises a plan to track down Ghostface by having Tara and Sam walk together in a park to get his attention with a phone call whilst Kirby tracks them down. When they discover that Ghostface is at Gale's penthouse, Tara and Sam steal Wayne's police car and race to her apartment where they interrupt Ghostface as he is attacking Gale. Before passing out, Gale asks them to tell Sidney that he never got her.

Tara comes up with a plan to lure Ghostface in and execute him and Wayne tells them that they should use the theatre for this plan and to travel there in public, where Kirby will be waiting for them. After getting separated on the subway, Chad, Sam, Tara and Danny arrive at the theatre where Sam sends Danny away. Mindy is attacked on another subway and is later sent to the hospital.

Whilst preparing for Ghostface's arrival, Wayne calls the group and tells them that Kirby was fired from the FBI two months ago because of her mental state. Believing Kirby is the killer, Sam looks for Chad and Tara. The two share their first kiss, but are attacked by the killer. Sam, Tara and Chad fight Ghostface off, and whilst giving Sam and Tara a chance to run, Chad is attacked by two Ghostfaces and left for dead. Sam and Tara prepare to fight, but then Kirby re-emerges and reveals that one of the Ghostfaces ambushed her and knocked her out.

Wayne then arrives and shoots Kirby, revealing himself as the new killer. The two Ghostfaces take off their masks, revealing Ethan and Quinn underneath who are Wayne's kids and the brother and sister of Richie. The trio are all seeking revenge against Sam for killing Richie. Sam and Tara evade the killers and flee to the upstairs of the theatre to try and escape, but Tara slips off the railing due to Wayne shooting at her. Sam holds onto her, but Tara tells Sam she has to let her go. Sam gives Tara Billy's old knife that she took from his display case in the shrine and lets Tara go.

Tara suffers a stab from Ethan in the stomach when falling down before then stabbing him in the mouth and telling him he'll die a virgin. After Sam kills Quinn with a gunshot to the head, she and Wayne fall over the railing to the ground. When Wayne comes to, he gets a call from Tara using the Ghostface voice and then Sam comes out behind him wearing Billy's old mask and robe and stabs him to death using Billy's knife, with Tara's approval. Ethan tries one last time to kill them, but Kirby crushes his skull using the same TV that killed Stu Macher.

Danny then arrives with reinforcements from the NYPD and reveals that Gale and Mindy are still alive and recovering. As the killings come to an end once more, Tara and Sam help Kirby into an ambulance and Tara cries when she realizes Chad is dead. However, the paramedics announce that they have a live one and Chad is wheeled out, still alive. They run over to greet him joyfully, and Tara kisses Chad. He gets into an ambulance with Mindy, who has since arrived, and they go to the hospital. With the killings now over, and Gale confirmed alive, Tara, Sam and Danny walk away from the theatre, with Sam dropping Billy's old mask behind her and leaving him behind.

Kill Count

The following is Tara's Ghostface kill count:

	Amber Freeman	Burnt alive by Gale Weathers and shot through the head	Scream (2022)
	Ethan Landry	Stabbed in mouth and skull crushed by Kirby Reed	Scream VI

Relationships

Family Christina Carpenter - Mother (cut off) Mr. Carpenter - Father Samantha Carpenter - Half-Sister Allies Sidney Prescott Woodsboro, California Dewey Riley † - Defender Judy Hicks † Martha Meeks - Boyfriend's Mother Deputy Vinson - Former Police Protection Woodsboro High School Wes Hicks † - Former Friend Chad Meeks-Martin - Boyfriend Mindy Meeks-Martin - Friend Liv McKenzie † - Former Friend / Former Co-Worker Principal - Former Principal Blackmore University Anika Kayoko † - Former Friend Laura Crane † - Former Teacher New York City, New York Gale Weathers Danny Brackett Atlanta, Georgia Kirby Reed - Friend

Enemies Mr. Carpenter - Father; Disowned Ghostface Amber Freeman † - Ex-Best Friend / Attempted Killer / Victim Richie Kirsch † - Half-Sister's Ex-Boyfriend Wayne Bailey † - Attempted Killer Quinn Bailey † - Ex-Roommate / Attempted Killer Ethan Landry † - Attempted Killer / Attempted Victim Woodsboro, California Christina Carpenter - Mother; Disowned Blackmore University Frankie - Attempted Rapist Jason Carvey † - Attempted Killer Greg Bruckner † - Attempted Killer

Quotes

Normally

Scream (2022)

• "It's an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief". (About the 2014 horror film, The Babadook).
• "It's elevated horror. You know, it's like scary, but with complex emotional and thematic underpinnings."
• "This isn't fucking funny, Amber!"
• "The chick from TV!" (about Gale Weathers)
• "It is Gale Weathers, you motherfucker!"
• "Fuck you!"
• "Ask me about It Follows, ask me about Hereditary, ask me about The Witch!"
• "I got it right!" (Easter egg reference to Kirby Reed's Remake Call in Scream 4)
• "I got you, asshole"
• "I still prefer The Babadook."
• "I'm so high right now."
• ”You’re gone for five years, five whole years, and then I get stabbed, and you wanna come back and you wanna drop ALL this shit on me?”
• "Sam, I need you to get the fuck out. SAM, GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Scream VI

• ”You have to let me go.”
• ”Sam, are you FUCKING kidding me?”
• ”Maybe. Or maybe you’re just afraid that without Ghostface in your life, you’re gonna fade away”
• ”Don’t you FUCKING dare.”
• “Now die a FUCKING virgin."
• "Not bad, Cute Boy." (to Danny Brackett)

Trivia

• Her character name was confirmed by HelloSidney.com in January 2021.^[2]
• Jenna Ortega was 19 years old playing her role of Tara Carpenter in 2022. Coincidentally, both the actress and her character were born on the same year, albeit Jenna was born 2 months and 18 days earlier than Tara (September 27th), making her older in this regard.
  • Jenna Ortega was currently 20 years old playing her role of Tara Carpenter in 2023.
• Tara and Sam are the first sister characters to be introduced in the series together, both alive. The first sister dynamic introduced in general were Maureen and Kate Roberts.
  • Sam and Tara parallel but reverse the role of the sisters in regards to their age (Sam and Maureen were the oldest, whereas Tara and Kate the youngest) and problems. Maureen and Sam were conflicted in their personal lives, such as Maureen in her promiscuity in response to her trauma and failed Hollywood career, whereas Sam was drug addiction and mental health problems inherited due to her bloodline, which her own ex-boyfriend and killer, Richie Kirsch, alluded to leading him finding Sam and it being easy to fall in a relationship with her because of it.
  • Unlike Kate being jealous of her older sister after her running off, scandal of promiscuity, and fame from her murder that her niece Sidney (Maureen's daughter) received, Tara is the opposite in that she despises Sam for being related to Billy (Sidney's ex & one of Maureen's killers) and doesn't want the fame nor attention related to surviving or based on the Stab franchise.
• Both Tara and Samantha's dynamic of being half-sisters, with Sam as the oldest & being the illegitimate child and daughter of a serial killer father (Billy Loomis), and Tara being the younger, legitimate half-sister of her older sister's stepfather (Mr. Carpenter), is also a reference to the TV series of the sister dynamic between Piper Shaw and Emma Duval from Season 1.
  • However, Tara and Sam's dynamic is different in that each grew up together, seeing as Sam wasn't abandoned or neglected by their mother, Christina; who knew of her father after her born and who grew up with Tara's father believing she was his firstborn daughter, thus their sister dynamic not being destroyed but estranged and later improved, unlike Piper or Emma.
  • Unlike Piper as Emma's sister, Tara's sister Sam, despite her bloodline, did not turn out to be Ghostface targeting either Tara or her friends, on account of Sam having grown up with Tara (and the others being the Meeks-Martin twins who she babysat) and not resorting to, due to her as Billy's illegitimate daughter, not seeking to follow in his footsteps or avenge him by becoming him, despite trying to be framed as doing so, in requel terms by the 2022 killers, Sam's boyfriend Richie, and Tara's former friend and Richie's secret girlfriend/accomplice, Amber Freeman.
  • Piper was a result of her and Emma's mother, Maggie Duval, having an affair with her town's framed alleged serial killer, Brandon James, who had given up her at birth due to her youth and a reverse of not wanting Emma's father, Kevin Duval, knowing, with Emma being the younger, legitimate daughter and second-born of Maggie, but Kevin's firstborn daughter. This led for then Piper after growing up, to resort to killing & targeting Emma and her friend's, with Emma's faux-boyfriend, Kieran Wilcox, being Piper's secret lover and accomplice, and the differences of each, mainly being Sam never became Ghostface and how Tara and her former friend, Amber, weren't dating, despite their hinted romance (See Below).
• She became Chad's second girlfriend after the death of his first girlfriend, Liv McKenzie.
• Tara is the first character who is the second girlfriend of their boyfriend (Chad), who doesn't wound up being either a victim or Ghostface in the film franchise.
  • She would be the first of the film franchise, however, preceded by Gina McLane as Audrey Jensen's second girlfriend from the "Halloween" to "Halloween II" specials of Season 2.
    • Technically speaking, Emma Duval would've been the first, with Gina as the second and Tara third, if counting the fact that her ex, Kieran, was the secret accomplice and Lakewood Slasher #2, who was in a secret relationship with Emma's older half sister, Piper.
• Her zodiac sign is Sagittarius.
• She watched Stab the first time at a sleepover (during 2014) when she was approximately 12 years of age,
• Her phone battery is 96%, a reference to the release date year of the original Scream.
• Tara is the second character to have asthma and an inhaler (albeit the first overall in the films), after Manny in Season 3 of the TV series.
• In the original script and in casting calls, she was depicted as a lesbian, and the ex-girlfriend of Amber Freeman. These elements were removed in the theatrical release, rendering it non-canon. Mindy Meeks-Martin has also been confirmed to be the first explicit and canon LGBTQ character in the Scream film series (the second being Frances).
  • It is still possible the character of Tara will be revealed to be bisexual in a future film, however.
• Her age is a glaring continuity error unresolved and unspoken by the directors, Matt and Tyler. She is explicitly noted as 5 years younger than Sam Carpenter, the biological daughter of Billy Loomis murdered in 1996, and the events of the film are allegedly almost "25 years later to the day" of his murder, hence 2021 (another reference to 2021 is made with Stab as a digital release on YouTube). Despite this, she is still in high school. Even if Sam were born 9 months after Billy's near-murder, her age is still a mistake.
  • To rectify this, it is possible she is a high school senior grade repeat, or the film takes place one year earlier (despite an on-screen reference being 2021). Her wristband reveals she was born 12/14/2002, revealing she is turning 19, and one year older (18) than a traditionally aged senior.
    • Due to Scream VI, however, the timeline and glaring age discrepancy makes the 25th anniversary murders (2021) take place on the 26th anniversary instead (2022), and thus Tara would be in the Woodsboro High Class of 2023 alongside her friend group/attempted killer, making her age and status as possibly a high school super senior, being 19 turning 20.
  • For more: see Timeline.
• She has strong references to Casey Becker.
  • In the photoshoot, Tara’s scene in the kitchen of her house standing by the knife rack and answering a home phone while by it is a direct homage to Casey Becker’s scene in the original Scream.
  • Like Casey, she was taunted and harassed and forced to answer horror trivia questions to save her life.
    • Unlike Casey, Tara through her home security app on her phone, was fortunately able to contact the police, while Casey only threatened the killer (Billy) on the phone that she'd do it and when she was about to call, was then called again and which the killers taunted her for calling out who's there, keeping her on the phone until her death, unfortunately.
  • Like Casey, prior to being called, she was making something to eat. Tara was making soup, while Casey was making popcorn and unlike Casey, Tara didn’t leave the stove on or her food, thus avoiding a fire.
  • Like Casey, she has to answer the horror trivia questions to save her partner's (Amber, if other than friendship) life.
  • Like Casey, she punched and kicked Ghostface in defense.
  • Like Casey, she was stabbed multiple times.
    • Unlike Casey Becker, she survives. The fact that she survived and became a final girl makes the requel of the film further connect Casey Becker and Sidney Prescott's hybrids between these two characters. This fulfills the original intention of what Wes Craven wanted for Drew Barrymore to play out as a final girl. (She survives due to her other strong references to Sidney.)
• She has some strong references to the 17-year-old Sidney (due to her surviving and being a final girl).
  • Like Sidney, she attempts to go out the front door during her original chase.
  • Like Sidney, she succeeds in kicking Ghostface in defense and knocking them off his (or her) feet.
  • Like Sidney, she was able to contact the cops in time of her attack.
  • Like Sidney, she has a close friend, Amber (like Tatum for Sidney) who is more concerned for her then other friends.
  • Like Sidney with Billy, she tries to grab the gun away from the killer (Amber) after killing her friend (Liv). In Sidney’s case, Billy shot, but didn’t kill Randy as he was still a virgin, and Liv was not having been with Vince prior to Chad.
  • Like Sidney, she is flipped over the sofa in the 261 Turner Lane household by the killer when attempting to defend herself.
  • Like Sidney, she shoots the killer in the head, killing them, and remarks her movie preference.
  • Like Sidney, she punches Gale during Scream VI when she prompts her and her sister for an interview.
  • Like Sidney, she is beginning to show stoic features in her facial expressions and formidability when fighting against Ghostface. She continues fighting Ghostface despite being stabbed several times during Scream VI.
  • Like Sidney, during Scream VI, Kirby and Tara bond as friends and teenage survivors of Woodsboro and resemble her (teenaged Sidney) of different Woodsboro generations; Kirby of 2011 and Tara of 2022. Kirby further inspires Tara to be strong and fight like she and Sidney did to survive Ghostface attacks.
• During Scream VI, Tara mainly embodies Sidney of Scream 2 where she is attempting to go to college, cope and move on after the traumatic events of Woodsboro.
• When being asked from Frankie, a frat from the Omega Kappa Beta, where she's from and if she's in the Omega Beta Zeta (referencing the sorority and fraternity from Windsor College in Scream 2), Tara responds "Michigan".
  • This is a reference to the filming location of Scream 4 being Northern Michigan.
• Tara wears a plain black and white long sleeved shirt in Scream VI, with black stripes. This is similar to the same shirt Jill Roberts, the seventh and second revealed female Ghostface, wore in Scream 4.
  • Similarly, the long sleeved blue button shirt Tara wore in the finale of the sixth film, is similar to Gale Weathers and her short sleeve blue shirt that she wore in Scream (2022), as well as a nod to the blue shirt Roman Bridger had worn when he first appeared in Scream 3, as well as the similarly long blue sleeve shirt Angelina Tyler wore in that film as well.
• Tara's plan to lure Ghostface to a "secure location" (Ghostface Shrine) in order to catch the killer(s) off-guard and get them, instead of the killer luring them, in tradition of ending at a party/event like the previous five films, is similar to when Emma Duval had devised a plan to let the Lakewood Slasher come to her and her friends at the Zenith Theater in Season 2 in the finale episode "When a Stranger Calls".
  • Like that in Tara's plans, both women were unaware that the killer was among them (Wayne/Ethan to Tara, Kieran to Emma) who helped devise or aided to it, to know their victim's movements, albeit it was, temporary due to the real showdown being at the abandoned Blessed Sisters orphanage turned shrine, where a party was held ("The Orphanage") prior. This allusion of 2 showdowns and endings was first applied in Scream 4.
  • Tara's plan to trap and lure Ghostface at the shrine, where the Core Four had already visited, would be technically the second plan to do this in the franchise, preceded by Kym's plan to lure Ghostface late at night to her and The Deadfast Club's high school, in Season 3, in the second episode "Devil's Night", also referring to the date, as the plan was laid out on Tuesday, October 30th, 2018 (seeing as Tara's took place on Halloween day instead, October 31st, 2023, also on a Tuesday).
    • However, difference being how Kym's plan leaned and had a suspect ready to lure, Shane, despite being innocent, whereas Tara's plan didn't and was more aligned to Emma in just discovering who it was.
• Tara is the first "opening kill victim" to survive a Ghostface attack in the entire Scream franchise, including the television series. The "death" is simply an attack, revealed in the aftermath of the title card. This twists a tradition spanning the first four films.
  • The character of Becky from the TV Series in Season 3 does not count, as she was never targeted, but was simply a red herring for the audience (and if the logic was simply appearing in the opening, other characters, such as the Beckers would be considered survivors). Though, both plot elements carry similar themes.
  • Tara is so far, the only main character (and female) in the franchise and in the openings of the films to have been attacked alone (solo) and not alongside anyone else, a reverse to the tradition of the franchise having two opening kills. Tara’s survival would then avenge/succeed that of Jake Fitzgerald from Season 2, as well as Deion Elliot from Season 3.
• Tara being taunted by Ghostface, by getting asked trivia is an homage to the original while also attacking her as well as to various characters in the openings of the films in and throughout the franchise.
• Tara having been asked trivia based on the Stab film series (mainly the first), is thus an inverse homage to the first Scream, as she’s taunted by Ghostface, (in a meta reference to Casey), for being home alone during the anniversary of the 1996 murders having taken place almost 26 years prior.
  • Richie as Ghostface, making reference to Tara and taunting her for being in the same scenario of the opening scene of Stab, is a reverse to the line Jill as Ghostface had told Kirby Reed in Scream 4, in that she said “Forget watching Stab, you get to live it.”
  • Like Kirby, each were taunted with the supposed attacks on their “friends” by the killer before each were attacked as they headed outside and were later on revealed the identity of each (albeit Tara’s attack was more personal, seeing as she had been attacked alone in the opening in a reference to the original, while Kirby was not).
  • Like Kirby, each were the first sole survivor in different ways (Kirby of the second massacre, Tara of the opening kills).
• Tara had the killer breaching her home’s security by unlocking the doors while she saw it through her phone’s home security app.
  • This is similar to Emma Duval from the TV series being threatened by the Lakewood Slasher in the second episode of the first season “Hello, Emma”; wherein the killer calls, posing as a home security caller of her house, only to taunt her by keeping her on the phone about whether she locked the killer inside or out.
• Tara’s confrontation with Ghostface, via text message and through the phone call, are perhaps references to the opening of Scream 4 and of the film within the film Stab 6, where the characters Sherrie and Trudie deal with the killer taunting them through cat fishing and stalking Trudie on Facebook, texting her and making phone calls; which lead to them opening the front door, and Ghostface appearing and killing Trudie from the inside in the back, while Sherrie is killed running through the door up front. Similar to Tara, albeit that was from a film within a film.
• Tara is the fourth known character whose birthday is stated as being in 2002, with the first two being twins Marcus and Deion Elliot, as well as Avery Collins, from Season 3 of the TV series.
  • Tara's birthday is the only among the new generation in the films whose birthday is stated as being 2002, thus far.
  • Tara's birthday on December 14th, is 7 months and 3 weeks after the birthday of Avery, which is April 24th.
  • Like Marcus (and Avery), Tara's birthday and age range are a Continuity Error, due the fact that she would be 19, turning 20 as a high school senior, much like how Marcus was perhaps 16-17, which is the age for a typical high school junior (meaning he should've been in the Class of 2020), but who was instead graduating from Weaver High School a year earlier (like Tara, who should've graduated a year earlier, in 2022), but each inference was retconned and plausible as it could be viable for other reasons.
    • Tara was the only person born from 2002 to graduate at Woodsboro High School.
  • Tara and the other two survivors being her friends (and also being twin siblings) Chad and Mindy, of the 2022 Legacy Murders, are reminiscent to the trio of survivors from the 2018 Atlanta Murders which included Marcus, Liv Reynolds, and Kym.
  • Both Tara's friend group in the fifth film and The Deadfast Club from Season 3 the TV series were each just two-three years apart in their age range (Weaver High Class of 2019 b. 2000; 2001-2002 and Woodsboro High Class of 2023 b. 2002; late 2003-2004/2005), but all part of the same generation (Generation Z) and in each of their respective timelines, Tara and her friends were freshman in the summer of 2018 to 2019 while the latter in Atlanta, Georgia were incoming graduating high school seniors the same year.
    • Both friend groups also had one faux-friend on the inside who was secretly a Ghostface killer (Amber to Tara, Beth to Marcus), which is a reference to both Billy and Stu from the original, as well as Jill and Charlie from Scream 4, and Kieran Wilcox from Seasons 1 and 2.
    • Like Amber to Tara and Beth to Marcus, the supposed friends were part of a duo and in an inappropriate relationship with an adult who knew the group from the outside (Amber and Richie, latter was Tara's sister Sam's boyfriend; Beth and Jamal, the latter being Marcus's older half-brother), which is a nod to Piper Shaw and Kieran Wilcox's duo/relationship, off-screen, from the first two seasons.
• Neil Prescott homage: Sam discovers her mouth taped and tied up in a closet. She is the second reference to the character, after Trevor Sheldon.
• Tara’s floor crawl across after being stabbed by Ghostface whilst trying to escape is likely an homage to Tatum Riley, Maureen Evans and Jenny Randall, in which the leads all find themselves trying to escape their killers after being attacked.
• She and Ethan Landry said, "Fuck You!" to each other like how Sidney and Roman Bridger said to each other in Scream 3.

Gallery

Tara Carpenter has a Photo Gallery.

Appearances

• Scream (2022 film)
• Scream VI^[3]

Character Guide

Scream (2022) Characters
Core Four	Samantha Carpenter • Tara Carpenter • Mindy Meeks-Martin • Chad Meeks-Martin
Principal Characters	Richie Kirsch • Wes Hicks • Liv McKenzie • Amber Freeman • Ghostface
Supporting Characters	Deputy Farney • Deputy Vinson • Vince Schneider • Judy Hicks
Legacy Characters	Dewey Riley • Gale Weathers • Sidney Prescott • Billy Loomis (hallucinations) • Randy Meeks (photo)
Ghostface(s)	Amber Freeman • Richie Kirsch
Recurring Characters	Judy Hicks • Martha Meeks (cameo) • Kirby Reed (photo) • Jennifer Jolie (photo) • Roman Bridger (archive footage of Scott Foley) • Tori Spelling (photo) • Casey Becker (Stab)/Heather Graham (photo) • Billy Loomis (Stab)/Luke Wilson (photo)
Cameo Characters	Frances • Christopher Speed (fiction) • Principal

Scream VI Characters
Core Four	Samantha Carpenter • Tara Carpenter • Mindy Meeks-Martin • Chad Meeks-Martin
Principal Characters	Anika Kayoko • Quinn Bailey • Danny Brackett • Ethan Landry • Jason Carvey • Wayne Bailey • Ghostface
Supporting Characters	Laura Crane • Christopher Stone • Brooks • Greg Bruckner
Cameo Characters	Richie Kirsch (video footage) • Stu Macher (photo) • Amber Freeman (photo) • Jill Roberts (photo) • Charlie Walker (photo) • Nancy Loomis (photo) • Mickey Altieri (photo) • Roman Bridger (photo)
Legacy Characters	Gale Weathers • Kirby Reed • Billy Loomis (hallucinations) • Dewey Riley (photos)
Ghostface(s)	Jason Carvey • Wayne Bailey • Ethan Landry • Quinn Bailey

References